(informal) thinking or working well; using all one's
ability. The
phrase comes from a description of the proper
operation of an automobile engine in which the fuel mixture is ignited in each of several chambers (called cylinders) in
turn, allowing the engine to
run smoothly or at full
power. So you gently
infer to him in the next five or six questions that he is not quite hitting on all four cylinders. -
Postulates 1, 2, 3, 4 in
Processing-New
Understanding of
Axiom 36 (14
Sept. 55)